From the broken, the ones that lived
by Darkraven3441
Summary: "They say most of the brain shuts down in sleep...all not the primitive side. The animal side." - Taryn has reached Earth realm, escaping from bounty hunters along the way. She has a few months before someone finds out where she is... But landing in a city taken by a Biological Disaster wasn't on her plans.
1. Chapter 1

**From the broken, the ones that lived.**

**Hey everyone. :)**

**So, this is my fanfiction point job made for someone in DA (Taryn93) that will take place in Resident Evil universe with the main character being Taryn's OC, also named Taryn. I just wanted to tell you that things will roll a bit different than my usual style.**

**In my previous fanfictions I used a more "easy" language, because I didn't know how people would like my writing style, which is a bit more technical and precise. I like to describe things in details and use complicated words, but this style is most often used in Portuguese – Brazillian language, which is my birth one. In order to be able to achieve this style I would have to write it in Portuguese and then translate it to English.**

**This is exactly what I'm going to do.**

**By this time you might have thought that it's really a lot of work. It's like writing two fanfictions at a time! And considering I'm planning on making 20 chapters of this it would take me more than 2 months to have everything up.**

**The solution I found is trying to make chapters shorter. Explaining: My general chapters have 2k – 6k words, instead of making them that long I would write a maximum 1k and resume it that way, making the English/Portuguese translation take about 2k words, which reaches the old chapter rate I have. This also works for content because I can update it more often instead of taking a whole month to give an update (Latest GOTG Fanfiction knows :D).**

**So that's it, I'm sorry about the long introduction, I hope you enjoy the fanfiction. :)**

_"__A name defines your freedom, your mark as a living being… When you realize what this means, you shall see that there is always something fighting for. No matter how alone you are, or how dark the world can be."_

_ "__Your name is now Taryn, Taryn Dallas."_

_ "__You are free."_

Taryn's consciousness returned in bits, flooding her senses and mind with information regarding her surroundings. She wasn't surprised to notice that she was still feelings a slight disorientation and dizziness, even with her eyes closed she felt like she was numbing. A soft buzz took place in her ears.

Slowly she opened her eyes, trying to regain focus. She was lying on her stomach, both her arms were stinging. When she placed her hands in the floor, she took notice that they started hurting as well. Her nostrils, trained to feel even the slightest of scents, caught a soft metallic smell, which multiplied itself into many others.

Blood…

The closest one was comings from herself. Supported on her knees, she checked out arms and palms of hands. Both were cut by the glass, fallen and scattered on the floor of the entire environment. Feeling a bit better, she analyzed the environments with a deeper look. The room was dark, but her gray eyes, characteristic of a Primal, adjusted themselves with fantastic speed. The place was bathed in a red light that was coming out of broken Windows. Taryn could feel a cold breeze, what she knew that meant a place with great heights. A building, she thought. Nevertheless, the atmosphere was warm, yellow and orange flames painted the surrounding of other constructions, exposed through the broken Windows.

Slowly, Taryn got up. Still numbing, considering her condition. She touched the walls around to stand firm, continuing to evaluate the environment. There were several tables scattered around and dropped by the wayside, papers and brochures covering torn much of floor varnish, mixed with shards of glass from computer screens and remains of the windows.

Taryn walked the halls of debris, examining what she could to discover about the recent events. A bit slumberous, a lot seemed to be vague, causing her to have to give more of a look at certain things. In addition, she noticed some dark red spots several places, especially on the walls. In certain spots, round holes were scattered at regular intervals. Taryn touched some of them, feeling the texture and composition. Her mind began to tingle with many combat-analysis strategies.

_"__Sub Machineguns, pistols, automatic rifles. Followed fire, multiple targets. Focus on vitals. Splatters indicate moving victims. Missing bodies, not dragged."_

When she took her hand off, she noticed the blood on her own hand. Taking a closer look on the wounds, she evaluated their state. None of them were deep, but were bad enough to cause some damage. Her healing-factor would be able to cure it in a moment, but they had to be covered in order to avoid any possible infection. Fortunately, the room also had colored ribbons scattered. Taryn though they were brought for a party or celebration.

Carefully, Taryn picked one that was neither dirty nor tainted and wrapped around her arms and palms skillfully, finishing off with a strong knot. She also checked her pants and shirt for any holes or tears. Fortunately, both were intact.

Checking her pockets she missed her twin blades. There was no way she would keep going unarmed, and because of that she walked to the place where she had woke up, snapping her boots on the broken glass. Taryn checked the ruble and pushed some of the tables out of the way. After a couple minutes, she found both knives lying aside each other. Beyond a few scratches, the blades were intact.

Slowly, Taryn slid her finger on the blade's edge, causing a superficial cut. She cleaned the blood taking notice, satisfied, that they were still shard. She was about to sheathe them, when a click and a voice came from behind her.

"Drop the knives, slowly."


	2. Chapter 2

"Damn it" – Taryn thought.

Through battles where survival was by a risk, the most important sense you could have - beyond your vision – was your hearing. Your eyes were limited to one direction, but your audition could cover a longer range, even show enemies behind covers or hideouts. Taryn had gone through uncountable battles where she used the enemy's vision against them, usually by sticking to dark places or playing tricks with shadows. It was a skill with fair good uses that could be the difference between living or dying.

But, even for a brief moment, she forgot about it and was caught off-guard.

Taryn went through a rough fight to teleport to the earth-realm. She was cornered by a group of bounty hunters and was walking on the edge of getting caught. Luckily there was a deactivated worm-hole jump close to her position, as she managed to reach it and program the thing; she also set up a timer in order for it to self-destruct in a couple minutes after the last activation. She hoped that it would be enough to cover her tracks for a time, before another group came back to look for her head.

They always did.

And that was what she thought as the voice behind drew her attention. It sounded muffled, like whoever was the owner of it was using a mask. But the usual type of bounty hunters that went after her didn't wear masks; they liked to show their faces with pride so that whoever was their target would cower in fear which, in Taryn's opinion, was bullshit. Hiding your identity could be crucial when you have this kind of job. But then again, who was she to judge? She was the one being chased after all.

Taryn was, actually, rather surprised to be kept alive that long. Rumors said that she was worth a lot more dead. Thinking that her luck had ended after the travel, as she would probably be shot in the head in no time, maybe things were bound to turn from bad to worse. But analyzing it through another point, she still had her brain intact; it could be just a balance between luck and disgrace.

Taryn touched the knives handles on the floor, but didn't let go of them. The voice sounded impatient.

"Release them and place both hands behind you back, do it before I pierce a bullet through your pretty hair."

"There you go…" – She thought again.

She did as ordered and felt her hands being pulled back, strapped together with some kind of metal. Taryn smiled inside.

She wouldn't commit the same mistake again, so she concentrated on hearing her surroundings. As the man finished with the straps she risked a quick look behind, trying to gather some more information about where exactly she had landed on the earth realm. The man – or woman, she couldn't really tell because of the gas mask. But the voice seemed to come from a male – was wearing a full-body yellow suit, something close to an outfit that anti-bombers use. He had a military rifle on his hands, really expensive, she noticed, and was bearing a white and red symbol on the right arm with the letters "UMB. CO" just under it.

He looked concerned, in some way. Kept staring at random places around the room, but somehow his gaze was always turning to the fallen door on the far side of the office, and Taryn knew why. She heard two more pairs of footsteps coming from, what she assumed to be, the hallway just at the other side of the torn out entrance. It didn't take long for two more figures to appear. They looked identical to the first, except one of them was carrying a sub-machine gun and the other's suit was a greyish blue. Taryn didn't recognize the firearm model, but she was certain one of these weapons were responsible for the holes in the walls.

As they made visual contact, Taryn and the other two, the one bearing the sub-machinegun quickly turned his gaze to the one that apprehended her, making a gesture for him to come closer. She noticed he was shaking because of the weapon. As the man got closer he was greeted with a punch on the stomach and the blue suit one, who looked like to be some sort of leader, started talking. Taryn paid attention, her advanced hearing helped on situations like these.

"…Eliminated every single one of them in the building!"

"She… Cough… She isn't infected, sir"

"I can see that, you useless piece of shit. Just when I thought we were done here, you pop up with another problem! Can't you do anything right, just once!?" – He grabbed him through the collar of the suit. – "How did she get past us on the bottom floor, anyway? I thought you were keeping an eye for scavengers."

The one carrying the submachine-gun took a step forward, she sounded like a woman. – "It doesn't matter who she is or how she got here. We got a job to do, so let's do it. Dispose her and let's keep going."

Taryn didn't like that word.

The leader released the suit and backed off just a few steps. – "Get this over with, we'll be waiting you down the stairs." – And with that he went back to the room and disappeared on the corner. The man sighed and turned to Taryn, pulling the safety pin on the weapon and pointing it at her face. "Nothing personal, dear."

Taryn lifted an eyebrow and pierced him with a deadly gaze; she felt a silent shiver on the man's spine.

"Killing an unarmed and rendered prisoner, how noble of you. You do this often?" – She could tell he didn't, the hesitation was clear on his finger, which wasn't on the trigger.

"None of your concern."

"I guess it is, considering I'm this prisoner. Just tell me what you're doing here, if you're killing me either way."

He placed the finger on the trigger and pulled the weapon a bit higher. – "I'll consider it, if you tell me where you got these grey eyes."

Taryn chuckled inside her mind, it was working.

"Born with them, genetic anomaly. I can tell you're also working on something like that, biology and general science."

"You're pretty smart, for a girl. Usually I see your sex washing the dishes."

"Doesn't seem the woman in your team would like to wash the dishes."

"She's a special case."

"I can see that."

He pressed the gun's barrel against the top of her head. – "I don't even know why I'm still talking to you."

Taryn smiled to him. – "Because I'm distracting you, take a look behind."

Now the man was the one laughing – "You really think I'll fall for tha…"

As he was about to finish the sentence, he was grabbed on the beck by two hands. Taryn rolled backwards, in case he pulled the trigger on accident, and hid behind a desk. She watched by the corner as the man screamed against the person's grip and started shooting in all directions.

His struggle soon ended, as Taryn's savior sunk her teeth on the man's neck, painting the suit from pure Yellow to strong red.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Taryn twisted her wrists, breaking the cuff links.

The strength from a Primal wasn't something absurd, just somehow bigger than most humans. Enough to allow the holder to bend metal bars raise massive objects or provoke great damage in a close-quarters combat. Taryn did good use of all the possibilities.

She watched, a bit disgusted, her "savior" tear the treat from the man's suit violently, spilling guts from time to time and unmeasurable quantities of blood on the floor. He didn't even have the chance to scream. Taryn had seen while a victim loses their voice to panic or fear. She could clearly imagine all those feelings passing through the scientist's mind, what would probably make most people feel guilty or compassionate towards him but, considering he was pointing a gun to Taryn's head just a couple minutes ago, she actually felt like he deserved it.

The woman lifted her head to the sound of the falling chains and turned to Taryn. Her face was covered by shadows, since the lights that were coming outside were on her back. She pulled herself to her feet and started totteringly walking with both hands stretched to Taryn.

She could be an assassin, but she wasn't ungrateful. Naturally, she would have thanked the woman for her brutal saving, but there was something out of place; something really wrong and deadly. Taryn's instincts were ringing like alarm clocks.

"I don't know who you are or why did you choose to do what you did, but be on your way and there won't be any trouble between us."

The woman didn't stop.

"I mean it." – Taryn assumed a combat stance. – "Stop right the…"

She was surprised with the woman's speed and strength, as she instantly jumped on Taryn and knocked both of them on the floor. Luck, or perhaps her extremely fast reflexes, made Taryn place a hand on her attacker's neck, rendering her unable to come closer than a few inches to her own face.

Taryn couldn't tell what the woman's real intentions were, but she looked really desperate to chop off her flesh with bare teeth, struggling as much as she could against Taryn's firm grip. Now that they were facing each other, Taryn could distinguish the horror that composed in her face: Her eyes had red veins around it's edges. Most of her left cheek was missing from what seemed to be a bite, exposing the white and red stained teeth.

Taryn tried to push her away, but she was too weak at the moment and the woman had extra strength with her. Instead, she grabbed both sides of her head.

"Sorry about that." – Then she twisted, provoking a snap in her neck's joint.

She stood on the floor for a while to regain her breath. When she finally got up, the putrid smell from flesh took place in her nostrils; provoking a heavy nausea and almost making her throw up. The scent was there all along, but the adrenalin made Taryn block it for a while. She wished that he could have maintained that for a bit longer.

Taking a quick look at the woman's body she noticed a few other bruised along her arms and legs. Some seemed to be deep enough to be really damaging, if not mortal. That Intrigued Taryn, the woman wasn't in conditions to walk, fight or, if she could make a guess, be alive at all.

The reflexes from her knives drew her attention. Both blades were precariously placed on the floor, just a couple steps from the still bleeding body from the man in the suit. Taryn marched to it, taking care not to step on the body, and was caught off-guard when his hand suddenly moved, grabbing her ankles and making her trip.

Her luck worked again, as the man's face was covered by the mask and, therefore, prevented him from biting Taryn's exposed leg. But there was still his hand, he was just as strong as the woman was and about ten times what Taryn guessed he could be. She stirred against him and went for her knives, but they were too far from her. She couldn't reach them. Taryn kicked his face multiple times but nothing seemed to work. The man wasn't yelling, cursing or even talking at all. He was just mumbling like an animal, and that provoked a chill on Taryn's spine, but she kept kicking.

That was when she caught another movement with the corner of her eyes.

The woman was standing up again; her neck was twisted 180 degrees backwards but that didn't seem to be an issue for her, as she assumed a slow, yet firm, backwards-walk to Taryn. Taryn struggled harder to reach her knives while kicking the man's head, but the results were the same. When the woman was close enough to attack her, Taryn changed her plans and grabbed the first thing she saw – an iron bar from the debris – she stood up and used her other feet to step on the man's head, spilling blood everywhere. She then pushed the woman's chest and pierced her eye with the Iron bar. Both Taryn and the woman fell back.

She crawled away from both bodies; now expecting them to rise a third time, but that didn't happen. She sighed, relieved.

"What the fuck is going on here…" – She whispered to herself.


	4. Chapter 4

Taryn was sneaking through the hallway, avoiding the broken glass the best she could. On her shoulder, a strap was attached to a hanging gun, just below her hips. She wasn't really fond of guns, too noisy, but the situation forced a different consideration. She figured it was for the best to prevent the sick people of getting too close.

Taryn started calling them "sick" because it was obvious the condition was some kind of pathogen. She looked through the window and saw others just like the woman she killed before wandering the streets. Taryn was no doctor, but she had seen animals, normally dogs, turning aggressive just like that because of rabies. Also, the thing was transmitted through a bite; otherwise Taryn would already be infected by air exposure. The two things she couldn't explain were the burst of strength and resistance and the wish to infect other being, and also the resistance to death… A clean strike to the head seemed to do the job but the problem was that it was the one place Taryn would rather avoid.

Passing by a few doors, she saw sceneries a lot like the room she was before. Some had bodies carved with bullets and walls filled with blood. The corridor ended on a large atrium with glass windows and doors. Some were barricaded with rubble and office furniture, while others seemed to be just locked. Though the glass, Taryn could see many infected.

Her attention was drawn to the center of the atrium, where three people in biohazard suits were doing something with a mutilated body. Taryn jumped down and hid behind a piece of rubble, taking care not to make any noise. She heard them talking amongst themselves:

"That's the 7th sample, note that." – One of them asked and the other wrote something on a clipboard. – "I'm listening." – He replied.

The man kneeled beside the body stood up and lifted a vial against the light, saying a few specifics, like texture and color, to the other.

The third person, wandering around the atrium, started talking: - "Also, how you're planning to grab a live tissue sample? They all seemed to be dead to me." – Taryn noticed it was the woman from before.

"We'll find someone to infect and grab a sample as the virus is acting."

"And where do you plan to do this in this hellhole? Everyone's gone to shit already."

"There's always someone left, we're fine examples."

"We could have used that woman you told Redwing to kill." – Taryn noticed they were talking about her and the other biohazard scientist, "Redwing" seemed to be his name.

"She was already infected; did you take a look at her eyes? Grey as smoke. Last thing we want is to get a mutated gene; did you see the things on the Inner Labs? I would die before taking part on their experiments, Boss might get some ideas and I want to be long gone when he does." – He waved his hand on the air.

Taryn frowned. - "Inner Labs? Boss?" - She thought. There was something really bad going on, and she didn't like it. Her survival seemed to be threatened by it. Her thinking was stopped when she heard a pen falling on the ground on the other side of the place; the scientists seemed to hear it too, as they drew their weapons and pointed them to the origin of the noise.

"Come out, slowly." – The woman shouted.

It took a few minutes, but finally a man came out from behind a desk with raised hands. A pistol was in a holster in his hips and a rifle hanging on his back.

"Hey, calm down! I'm still alive." – He dropped both hands to the side and chuckled. – "Didn't think I would see any living souls for a long time…" – He started taking a few steps towards them.

"Stop right there!" – The woman shouted again and the man seemed confused.

"I said I'm not infected already! Those things can't even speak, for fuck's sake."

The woman was still impassible, she signed to the one with the clipboard. – "Black, secure him."

"Black" went closer, still with his gun raised and started touching the man in several places, mostly the pockets. He pulled the gun from the holster and detached the rifle from the survivor's back, throwing them towards the other scientists. He finished by stabbing a small injection on the man's arm, who flinched but didn't complain, and take some blood. He placed the red liquid on a vial with a transparent substance inside and shook. The blood remained the same.

"He's clear." – He lowered his weapon and got back alongside his companions.

"That's what I told you…" – He seemed angry, but hid it well. – "Are you with the army?"

The scientists looked to themselves before the woman nodded. She took a step forward.

"We're with a Disease Control Division." – She offered her hand and the man shook it. Then, she pointed to her colleagues – "That's Black and the one with the vials is Wirt, but names aren't important right now. It's good to see there's somebody who survived this chaos."

The man nodded. – "Everything's fucked up… Do you know anything about this? It's just like all those zombie movies. Used to be a fan of those, but now…"

She shook her head. – "We're still investigating."

"Too bad… Can I have my weapons back? I don't feel safe with those things out there." – He looked through the glass doors and closed her face in disgust.

"Sure… You can have them." – She pointed to the firearms on the floor behind him and the man turned to grab them. Taryn saw the woman getting closer to the one called "Wirt", she whispered something that only Taryn's enhanced hearing would be able to understand.

"There's your living sample."

"I guess the heavens do answer your calls from time to time… You want to do it?"

The woman raised her weapon. – "You know me so well…"

Taryn didn't even think, she just reacted. Grabbing a small rock from the floor, she threw it as hard as she could and hit the woman's head, making her stagger and miss the shot by just a few inches. The man noticed and ran to his guns, making a roll to grab them and hiding behind a corner. A few shots hit the wall and the others came straight to Taryn, as the woman recovered and started shooting the place she was hiding.

"You're going to pay for this, whoever you are!" – She just held the trigger, spreading bullets everywhere. The noise echoed through the whole atrium. When the woman's clip was empty, Taryn heard her breath picking up really fast. It took her a few seconds to notice a second noise and realize what happened.

Taryn looked behind to the glass doors, now completely shattered on the floor. Coming towards them, a horde of infected was marching.


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

Rolling to avoid the sick, but still maintaining cover in order not to get shot by the enraged scientist, Taryn drew her own weapon. With the corner of her eye, she saw the others doing the same, including the man who was almost shot in the back.

Light and sound filled the room as lines of decrepit people fell victim to millions of bullets. Taryn was doing her best to hit the heads, but the others, except for one, were just spraying.

It went like this for a while until all guns clicked the sound of empty cartridges.

"To the top floor!" – She heard the woman say. Taryn made sure she didn't have any more bullets or weapons and jumped out of the rubble, following them to the stairs. The man she saved took the ones on the other side, while the clipboard scientist was being eaten alive. She felt a bit sorry for him, and silenced thanked nobody in particular for buying them time by distracting the things.

The woman who tried to shoot her looked behind and saw Taryn following

"You bitch! Die!" – She kicked, aiming for Taryn's face. The primal easily blocked her boot with one hand, holding it firmly with a cold expression in her face.

The scientist realized just a minute too late what she was about to do.

"Please… No!" – Taryn grabbed her ankle with the other hand and threw her down the stairs, the scientist rolled pathetically and landed on her arm, twitching in pain.

Taryn heard her beg again and then scream in horror. She didn't stand to enjoy the scene, continuing to the top of the stairs. She heard a few more gunshots to her right, and arrived just in time to see that the man she saved had pulled a pistol and was trying to block some sick from reaching the top of the stairs. He saw Taryn and waved, then pointed to a room on the back wall.

"Go! I'll cover!" – He yelled. Taryn didn't wait for a second order and ran to the room. Once she was inside, the man turned and made a run for it. It would be a lie to say the thought of leaving him behind didn't cross her head, but he already made her blow her cover, so leaving him for dead would be a bad investment.

She closed the door once he was in and grabbed a piece of wood from the floor, using it to block the door.

"Move aside" – Taryn barely had time to step back before a huge wardrobe was dropped in front of the door, lifting tons of dust from the floor. The horde rammed against the door, but the heavy furniture seemed to hold just fine.

The man chuckled – "Quite a ride, huh?"

She turned to him, placing a hand on the knife handle in her belt.

"Yeah... I just hope it was worth it…" – She gave him a challenging look and took note of his appearance.

The man was somewhat old, had a black hair with some gray parts, green eyes and a muscular build. He was wearing a coat, military pants and a Kevlar vest, filled with pockets and small side arms on each side.

"So do I, miss. Thanks for that rock; I probably wouldn't have dodged that bullet in time. To be honest, I didn't, it got the vest, but I'm still greateful."

"Wish I could 'no problem', but the horde behind that door would disagree." – She heard a human-like scream coming from somewhere far from the door. – "I guess that is where the third guy went" – She thought.

"Can't argue with that…" – He showed her a hand – "I'm Jess, by the way. Most call me just 'J'."

Taryn hesitated, but took the hand. – "Taryn. Taryn Dallas."

"Nice to meet you, Trayn."

"Taryn… And the pleasure is all yours."

That's what I said and I suppose it is… What brings you to this helhhole?" – He sat a semi-destroyed chair, which broke one of the legs with his weight. – "Shit…"

"None of your business, but I'm pretty sure would like to know what's happening here… Last time I heard the dead used to stay like that."

He raised an eyebrow. – "You mean you don't know?"

She shook her head. – "That's the part where you call me ignorant? I can rip your tongue for that, just saying."

"Wow, slow it down, no need to get aggressive. But you really don't look like you know, so let's call it this way: I'm sort of tired for stories, so how about we work this out later?"

"Saying that implies we would be together for longer and I don't think it's going to happen."

"Figured you'd say that, but you didn't listen to my proposal. But before I make it, tell me this: Where are you headed?"

"Honestly? Somewhere away from these undead freaks would be a good start."

"Exactly my thoughts. I was headed for the Saint Memorial hospital. There is a rumor that the place wasn't taken and that they were already working on a cure."

"So it is a virus after all… But wouldn't it be easier to just skip town?"

"Assuming you get past the thousands of hordes outside, you still wouldn't make it. The army closed all the entrances to prevent the disease from spreading further. So the hospital is the only chance we have to get out of here. In a CDC chopper, most likely.

"CDC?"

"Holy… What kind of world have you been living on? Center of Disease Control" – She puffed to him

"Say I decide to come along, and then?"

"We reach the hospital, take the chopper out of here and move on with whatever it's left of our lives. Could use some extra fingers along the way, we have a deal?"

Taryn thought for a second, her options were quite limited.

"Great!" – He stood up and took a step to the window on the opposite side of the room and opened it.

"We're lucky, there's a catwalk." – Taryn went to look, the thing was tusty and barely holding itself to the wall.

"Well, ladies first…"


	6. Chapter 6 - Act 2: The streets

** Chapter 6 - Act 2: The streets**

"Rats?"

"Exactly. Whatever it was, is, the rats are most likely guilty. First there were just small and silent cases, but they stacked on top of each other to the point of reaching the outbreak. That thing destroyed the whole city in less than two days. Then the army came and tried the violent way to stop the infected. – Jess explained.

"Explains why everything is blown to bits…" – She replied.

"Wait, Shh… One incoming."

An infected crossed the entrance of he alley they were hiding in. Taryn easily disappeared in the shadows of a trash bin, which caused J. to lose sight of her.

"Hey, where did you g… Oh, shit!" – He cursed almost silently as he knocked a small can to the side. The infected shadow stopped for a moment, searching for any sign of movement. When none came, it continued to walk. Taryn and J. released their breaths at the same time.

"If we rely on your stealth to get to the hospital, we'll be dead in the next 10 minutes."

"Hey, sorry I'm not the cat-feet you are…"

She looked at him like a ferocious tiger. – "Never call me that again, unless you want to lose your tongue." – She touched the knife handles.

"Ugh, fine. Where did you learn to sneak like that, anyway? The army, Special Ops…?

"Something like a Special Ops" – She replied. – "And where did you learn how to shoot? You didn't seem to have trouble hitting heads back at that building."

"Street is clear. Run in 3, 2…" – They made a quick run for it and crossed without raising suspicion. When they were on the other side, safe hidden in an alley, J. pulled a chain with a dog-tag on the end from his shirt.

"Elite-Shooter at the U.S Army. Got 346 confirmed kills. Dismissed for being diagnosed with high levels of PTSD. Which stands for…

"Post-Traumatic-Stress-Disorder. I know." – She interrupted.

"Yeah… Also, you didn't mention the Special Ops name you were on. Or did you? I didn't hear it…"

Her expression said it all.

"Alright, alright, I get it. None of my business. Jesus, how many friends have you got?"

"Enough… Let's get moving."

They wandered a bit more through the alleys. All encounters they had were easily avoided by a slight change of course. After a couple minutes, J. held Taryn's shoulder. She shook the hand off.

"What the hell are you doing?"

He looked around. – "I know this street; there's a gun-shop right around the corner." – He pointed to an exit down to their left – "I'm almost fully out of bullets, and I don't think your toothpicks are the most suitable weapons for this kind of situation."  
Taryn puffed because of the commentary on her faithful knives, but didn't find worth to give him an answer. Especially considering he had a point.

"The place is probably raided by now; we'll lose time going there."

J. shook his head. – "No, it wasn't. The panic started close to this place. The gun-shop is fortified, and I know the owner, he was working when things went to shit. Look, let's just give it a look, okay? It'll pay off."

Taryn sighed.

"Fine, but quick AND safe. If you get in trouble, I'll leave you behind in a second. So watch yourself."

"So much for a partnership… But I accept your therms."

They followed the exit and took a look at the streets.

"Damn it!" – J. complained.

The landscape was filed with infected, wandering and bumping each other from time-to-time. – "The shop is barricaded, look." – Taryn pointed to a lit window. – "There's movement inside…"

"Tsc… We're out of luck. Let's just get moving, there's no way across this…"

Taryn didn't move. – "Giving up so soon?"

J shot her an angry glare. – "Weren't you saying we should move 10 minutes ago? Giving up so soon ?" – He rebounced.

"If I'm doing something, I want to do it right. You should try it sometime."

"Oh, great! So now you evolved from just giving me dry answers to trying to correct the way I do things! Perfect!"

Taryn was still perfectly calm. – "If you weren't so dumb, I probably wouldn't. Also, how did you plan to get in? The front entrance? What are you, stupid?"

"Of course not, almighty and smartest of all ladies." – He replied with an increasing sarcasm on his voice. – "There's a service entrance on the back. It's barred between the building itself and 3 other fences. The infected can't jump through them, but we can."

Taryn didn't reply. Instead, used her instincts to analyze her surroundings. Eventually she looked up and saw something that could be a solution.

"Wipe your tears. I think I know a way to get in."


	7. Chapter 7

** Chapter 7**  
"Is it too late to remember I'm afraid of heights?"

They had climbed to the top of the building in front of the gun-shop. Taryn was working cutting a few wires on a small fuse box. After a couple minutes she stepped away from it and went to touch a wire that connected both building's rooftops. J noticed she was triumphant for whatever it was the reason.

"Care to tell me what are you doing now?" – He watched Taryn place her knife on the wire with the flat part and test the strength. That's when J realized what she was about to do.

"No way, are you crazy?"

She looked at him with a curious expression.

"What? You've never done this before?"

"Of course I did! But not without any kind of safety gear, a horde of cannibals at the bottom and a wire that it's so thin it's going to rip the second I lean on it!"

"Cease your whining. You're surprisingly annoying. It's not that hard, I've already checked the thing, its strong enough to support both your big head and your small brain."

"Oh, thank you, miss! I feel so much better now! Perhaps you want to go blindfolded so it doesn't seem TOO easy!" – He crossed his arms. – "There's no way this is gonna happen."

"Your call, don't whine on me when you're out of bullets." – She turned to the edge of the building.

"Hey, wai…" – But Taryn was already gone. Using the connection between the handle and the blade, she skillfully slid to the other side, landing on the rooftop with a roll to ease the fall. She patted her clothing to get rid of the dirt and turned back, gicing a thumbs up to J.

He was leaning against the edge with his mouth wide-open.

"She's crazy, should've known better…" – He grabbed the assault rifle from his back and placed it on the wire, also climbing to the edge and holding firmly.

"And I must be too…" – He sighed and jumped.

Taryn smiled at the sight of his leap of faith. Somehow it felt good to see his expression, and truth be told: She wasn't expecting him to go along with it. Not being able to tell whether it was for his desperate need of firearms or the fact that she hurt his ego that motivated him was the funniest part. Both were, actually.

He was heavier and his gun had a flawed sliding speed, which led to a very slow and long ride.

But something drew Taryn's attention: A small cling and a creaking sound. She looked to the small metal post where the wire was attached to. It was slowly beding over, exposing the bolts that were supposed to stay attached to the floor.

"Shit!" – She jumped and grabbed the thing with perfect timing, sliding along the surface as the weight pulled her closer to the edge. She hit the border with violence, but that gave her some support to hold the line. She looked at J and noticed the glimpse of fear in his eyes. The line was short enough for an infected to easily reach him. He was just a few inches from getting bitten.

"Taryn!" – He yelled.

"Hang on! Don't let go!"

Taryn drew her inner forces, her muscles outlined and her eyes started glowing with a faint grey light. Making an enormous force, she pulled the whole post along with the wire, making the line go up and J being thrown in the air. He described a perfect arc, screaming all the way, and landed on Taryn. Both were sent rolling in different directions across the small building's top floor.

Both were breathing heavily as the adrenaline slowly faded from the bodies. After a couple minutes, Taryn heard J start chuckling. She turned her head to him.

"It's not funny."

He stopped laughing for a second. – "Of course it is, it's so fucked up its impossible not to laugh about it… I'm not even gonna ask how you did that; Honestly, I don't care."

Taryn stood up and, once again, cleaned the dirt from her clothes. J followed her.

"We should get moving."

"Yup… We're here, that's what it counts." – He looked back as the post slowly fell in front of the store and a squishing sound came from it. – "I just want to know how we are getting back…"

"We'll figure it out when we have to." – She went to a ladder on the back of the building and started climbing down to a small balcony filled with boxes. J followed her and both stood in front of the wooden door, lighten by a single flashing light on top. Taryn twisted the door's handle.

And something jumped out from it.


End file.
